Race, religion and nationality created a sense of essential belonging, or conversely exclusion, among the groups. There was a solidarity determined by birthplace and loyalty. There is also a level of guilt that goes along with a national identity, for both the Jews and the Germans. In Maus, Art Spiegelman feels guilty about portraying himself as a true mouse. Since he did not personally live through the Holocaust, he feels somewhat of an imposter mouse. Having not suffered the horrors of his parents and the others, he feels no right to identify with the same national identity as those who did suffer. The same could be said for Germans of later generations, they may not have been present during the Nazi reign, but still feel the guilt associated with the genocide of millions of people at the hands of their ancestors. Germans continue to be criticized for first allowing Adolf Hitler to attain so much power, and later for creating the division within Germany with the erection of the Berlin Wall in the 1960’s. With the cold war over, Germans are beginning to establish a new identity separate from the past circumstances. Many Jews continue to harbor resentment towards Germany
Race, religion and nationality created a sense of essential belonging, or conversely exclusion, among the groups. There was a solidarity determined by birthplace and loyalty. There is also a level of guilt that goes along with a national identity, for both the Jews and the Germans. In Maus, Art Spiegelman feels guilty about portraying himself as a true mouse. Since he did not personally live through the Holocaust, he feels somewhat of an imposter mouse. Having not suffered the horrors of his parents and the others, he feels no right to identify with the same national identity as those who did suffer. The same could be said for Germans of later generations, they may not have been present during the Nazi reign, but still feel the guilt associated with the genocide of millions of people at the hands of their ancestors. Germans continue to be criticized for first allowing Adolf Hitler to attain so much power, and later for creating the division within Germany with the erection of the Berlin Wall in the 1960’s. With the cold war over, Germans are beginning to establish a new identity separate from the past circumstances. Many Jews continue to harbor resentment towards Germany